SWEDISH BOYS TOYS

Bet the blog title got the guys attention. Sorry lads no pin ups.

Just recently being iced in has given me so much time on my hands that i have been reading more boaters blogs than usual some for the first time and some that have remained un-read for a considerable time which along with my usual list of regulars has left me somewhat Blog eyed.

It`s a bit like RPI (repetitive strain injury) but with Blog eye after switching off the laptop and say your looking out the window one eye will see the trees whilst the other will see a blog page. Maybe i should sue the bloggers or the blog administrators..................get a life Les just stop reading so many.

Anyway what i`m trying to tell you is that reading all these blogs it came to my attention that many were reporting the temperature or lack of it outside the boat and the abundance of it inside as recorded on many different electronic gizmo`s and i thought it was about time i up-graded my temperature device.
Now my present system requires no batteries, is fully portable and has no restriction on min/max temperatures that it will record. Unlike modern day gadgets it has no digital readout but a voice, as in the sat-nav boxes, which uses phrases like "blimey it`s hot" or "it`s ffffffffffffff freezing" so you have no need of digital technology. All sounds very 21st century so why up-grade i hear you say........well this gadget is 62yrs old not called a Wii but a Me.

So with all this time to use up i wandered around town and came across a newly opened branch of Clas Ohlson a company that originated in a small Swedish village back in 1918. It`s an IKEA type shop but on a smaller scale with just 7 shops in the UK so far selling not flat pack furniture but all sorts of small items, click the link and have a look. Hardware, electrical, home and in the drop down box under leisure you`ll find boating.

One of my purchases pictured below cost £3.99 and i thought why not have a "boys toy" as a back up to my old`Me`.
So toys are for playing with and my first playful experiment was to test the surface temperature of my recently carpeted lower half of the boat. Ignore the readings in the picture for now because what i did was to use the outside probe that comes with about 2 metres of cable and placed it on the carpeted wall near the floor for half an hour and for the same time on the one remaining section of wood panelled wall 3" to the left at the same height. OK too much info but this is a scientific test and we must be precise. The reading on the original wood panel fell 2.5 degrees so the carpet has made a big difference, Big deal! Holy smoke! Wow! I didn`t need this gizmo to tell me, my 62yrs old `Me` temperature device emitted a new phrase as i sat at the dinette "that`s a lot better" it said.

Next up is just how hot is it in the boat and for this the device was placed 2` above the floor roughly a 1/3 of the internal height of the boat sort of groin level.....Whoops can i say groin? after all this is a live broadcast worldwide and you know what happened to Johnathan wossi Ross, no it`s fine so say my behind the scenes production team.

Now before this experiment started my original `Me` device told me i was warm and comfy sitting in a short sleeved shirt. In the picture the device reads 20.0C at 19.27 and looking at it now a day later it reads 19.3 so my question is should this device rule my life, do i rush off now and put on a sweater as the gizmo says the temp. is dropping. No, no, no i will decide my own comfort level this is just a toy.

Another thought on these temp. thingy`s where do you site it, halfway up the wall or as in my scientific test a 1/3rd up. I`ve just hung it up on the top of the curtain rail and in the last 5mins it has climbed to 25C and rising but i still feel the same with no desire to start a narrow boat nudist colony. Yep my minds made up, just numbers take my advice and do the `Me` test.

Above another of my purchases at the Clas Ohlson store was this 60LED work lamp complete with not only a mains charger but for us boating folk a 12v charge plug. With 5hrs life between charges it is far from a toy and in fact had it`s first use today when down in the engine hole checking the battery levels. Normally £9,99 i picked it up at a sale price of £6.99.


Above one of the windows glazed with the Storm guard film and as i said in the last blog it looks just like a normal window but without the condensation.

Just a bit of fun this blog and i can assure all my timid readers no gizmo was harmed during testing.